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A senior executive from a leading security vendor has warned that Apple Macintosh computers pose a potential threat to the security of networks because of their ability to harbour infected files that only attack Microsoft Windows systems and lax security practices from Mac users.

According to the Asia Pacific marketing director of McAfee, Allan Bell, although security attacks on Mac OS/X systems would become more prevalent, many Macintosh users are not as vigilant as they should be. Lax security practices on Macintosh machines may enable Windows viruses to incubate on their Macintosh hosts and later infect Windows machines on a network

“An issue (Macintosh) users need to be aware of is that in some cases they can be a carrier – effectively a Typhoid Mary,” said Bell. “That is because you can have infected files on the Macintosh that do not infect the Macintosh but at a later date those get transferred across to a Windows machine which they can infect. Macintosh users still need to be scanning for Windows viruses to make sure that they’ve got clean files and don’t have infected files that they can pass on.”

Should organisations then be wary of allowing Macintoshes onto their networks given that they could be virus carriers and Macintosh users are not as vigilant as their Windows counterparts? According to Bell, who was touting the launch of McAfee’s new enterprise and small business Total Protection security suite, the issue is one of training and enterprise policy.

“There is a danger that organisations which are 100 per cent Macintosh and they are using Windows but are not frequent users of Windows, then they may not be aware of the security issues and could leave themselves open,” said Bell....more